Republican Molloy may back Democrat Frank in state House race

Attorney Dan Molloy, who lost to Dana Young in Tuesday’s Republican primary for the District 57 state House seat, is toying with putting his support behind Young's Democratic opponent Stacy Frank. Why the party line leap? Molloy said he's miffed that state Republicans put all their might behind Young in the primary. He charges that two weeks before the primary the state party, in its enthusiasm for Young, cut him off from a voter database that candidates use to target their campaigns. “It had no effect on anything,” Molloy said. “There are commercial services that do the same thing. But it was significant in terms of a statement.”

And the week before the election, the group Truth Matters, which has strong ties to the Republican Party of Florida, mailed voters pieces attacking Molloy as well as Republican candidate Todd Marks. “Those two events with the RPOF certainly released me from any implied commitments,” said Molloy.

Regarding the database, Republican Party spokeswoman Katie Betta said that Molloy is mistaken, that he lost his access to the database because someone had input an incorrect password three times in a row. That, she said, booted him from the system. “If he had called us we could have easily fixed it,” she said. “We had no way of knowing he couldn’t access his information.”

Sign up for The Daily Buzz on Florida Politics

Get the top five stories from the Tampa Bay Times political team emailed to you Monday-Friday at 3 p.m.

About the blog

Bay Buzz is your source for Tampa Bay politics news and discussion. Tampa Bay Times writers offer the latest in Tampa Bay politics and government news from Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, Pasco County and Hernando County. Keep in mind: This is a public forum sponsored and maintained by the Tampa Bay Times. When you post comments here, what you say becomes public and could appear in the newspaper.